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Searching for content with Daz -- how to do it quickly?

EdwardEdwardEdwardEdward Posts: 0
edited December 1969 in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

From what I've gathered, one is advised not to use the search box inside one's Daz Content Library to locate content one desires to use.

Instead, one is advised to use the ReadMe's to locate content.

But, surely that is a very inefficient way to look for content -- every time you need something, hunt through the Read Me folder for the right Read Me document, and then -- if there IS a Read Me for the content one is looking for -- open that Read Me document, read where the content is stored, then go hunt and peck around a bit to find it in Daz.

Meanwhile, if there is no Read Me for the content one is looking for (this seems to be the case for some of the content that comes free when downloading Daz 4), sometimes I find myself hunting and pecking through the whole Content Library for 20 minutes, and even then I might not find what I'm looking for. In the age of lightning fast search engines, 20 minutes is about 100 times too long.

How is one supposed to find content in a sensible way, then?

I suppose that for content that lacks any ReadMes, one could somewhere create an excel document listing where that content is located in the Content Library. But it seems odd to have to do that.

Surely there is a very easy way to search one's content in the content library, and I've just missed the place where someone explains it clearly?

Comments

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,565
    edited December 1969

    Why not use the search box? If you disable the Content Management Service it won't work, but otherwise it works fine (assuming you have some idea of what the file name is).

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Or you could Use the Catagory feature and set up your content the way you like it and always know where it is because you put it there. You have to do it for every item you install. It is covered very well in the Documentation now. I would include a link for you but the Doc site has been down all day. I'm sure it will come back on-line soon.

  • EdwardEdwardEdwardEdward Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    fixmypcmike,'


    Thank you for your reply.


    I'd love to use the search box, but I'd read somewhere in the Daz documentation that it was inadvisable to do so -- that it creates a lot of invalid paths, or somehow makes a mess internally to some of the workings of Daz. I'll try to find the documentation I'm talking about to show you.


    Here's an example.


    If you have the content tab set to FOLDER VIEW, Don't use the search for content feature. This function in practice adds many invalid paths and will cause much more trouble than help. This article explains how to configure your content correctly and makes the search for content feature unnecessary. This tip does not apply to the search function for the content tab when it is in CATEGORY VIEW which requires the search function.

    Search for Content Feature: Just say no


    You can find the above quote in this article: https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/20659227


    (By the way, I do not see around my Content Library anything about switching to Category View vs. Folder View, so I don't know which one I'm in, probably Folder View.)


    The above article seems to say to rely on Read Me's. That seems an odd suggestion in the age of computers and search engines.

    Then there's this:
    https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/21270966-finding-content-in-daz-studio-in-the-content-library-tab.


    In that one, the instructions given for finding content seem to me too time consuming and again rely entirely on Read Me's. Has to be an easier way, or what are computers and search engines for?

  • EdwardEdwardEdwardEdward Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail,


    Thank you for your reply.


    I'd be interested in the Category method, as in that case it seems it's not harmful to use the search box. If you know where the documentation for that is, I'd be obliged.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited June 2012

    EdwardEdward said:
    Jaderail,


    Thank you for your reply.


    I'd be interested in the Category method, as in that case it seems it's not harmful to use the search box. If you know where the documentation for that is, I'd be obliged.

    I will get it to you as soon as the link is active again. I think in DS4 you just use whichever view you prefer and use Right click on your Folders or icons to get the Catagory Feature now. I'm not 100% so please wait untill I can find the offical dox before you move anything. I only use DS3A 99% of the time but I do use Catagory in Both versions. I have to read the dox for DS4 because it is a little different than DS3's version.

    EDIT: I wish I had of put a copy on my HDD but I keep forgetting to do it.
    Post edited by Jaderail on
  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,565
    edited December 1969

    Oh, I see, the terms are confusing. That's not talking about the Search Box at the top of the Content Library tab, that's about using "Search Hard Drives For Files" from the Options menu. That option will grab anything on your hard drive that looks like a valid content folder, and often picks up things that aren't. As long as you only use one content folder (or import the list of content folders from DS3, or define them manually) you don't need to worry about that.

  • EdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdward Posts: 143
    edited December 1969

    fixmypcmike,


    Thank you for another reply and figuring that out.


    Couple of questions:


    1. Where is the "options" menu where you can "Search Hard Drives for files"? .


    2. If you are correct, why do the two articles I linked urge people to use ReadMe's to find content, as opposed to using the search box to find content? If you are right, wouldn't they have said something like, "to find content, type into the search box at the top of the Content Library the name of the content, and try searching. If you can't find it that way, THEN go through the rigmarole of looking through your ReadMe list, opening a ReadMe doc, seeing where the content is, then going back to the Content Library and looking up the piece of content"?

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,565
    edited December 1969

    On each tab there's a rectangle with horizontal lines in the upper left or right corner, that accesses the Options menu for the tab.

    I don't know why neither of those articles mentions the search bar. I suppose if you've just installed something you don't know the exact file names, so if the file names weren't obvious it would be hard to find them by searching.

    Those articles do have some confusing leftovers from DS3, where you had to choose either Folder view or Category view.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Okay, the Wiki is back, here is the main site http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php and here is the content stuff
    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/finding_loading_and_organizing_content/start
    Hope this helps.

  • EdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdward Posts: 143
    edited December 1969

    fixmypcmike,

    I just tried the search box at the top of the Content Library, because what you wrote made some sense to me, despite the obscurities of those articles, but oddly enough, the search box doesn't seem to work. I put in the exact spelling of a folder -- for example, "camera", I hit the search button, and and the search finds nothing. I tried searching for several folders I know are in the Content Library (I can see them there), and the search box doesn't find them.

    Wonder what I'm doing wrong...Tried searching under both "file" and under "database," two choices at the top right of the Content Library.

  • EdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdward Posts: 143
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail, thank you very much for those two links. I've bookmarked them so I can peruse them at my leisure. It certainly does help!

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,863
    edited December 1969

    Unfortunately search works only on file names, not folder names. This is something that has caused much complaint - especially as the old Finder plugin did work on folder names.

  • EdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdward Posts: 143
    edited December 1969

    Richard Haseltine,

    I thought I had tried, without success, to use the search box to find files. But I just tried it again and of course it worked. Thank you for that relief.

    So fixmypcmike is correct that I can use the search box at the top of the Content Library to locate files and that will not create a lot of invalid paths... (I got the idea that it creates invalid paths because of a Daz documentation quote I posted above - a quote I apparently misunderstood.)

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited July 2012

    It is the Search Harddrive for files that can ruin your content paths not the Search for by name feature at the top of the Content tab. Those are two different things in two different places. You can use the Search Box without any trouble.

    Post edited by Jaderail on
  • EdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdwardEdward Posts: 143
    edited July 2012

    Jaderail,

    Thank you.

    After hunting and pecking, it's a blast to be able to use the search box.

    Post edited by EdwardEdwardEdward on
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